[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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...
More than a year had passed since the events in the capital of Cintra. The name Madara Uchiha had been much discussed for some time, talking about the strange child who fought in the arena against various adults and defeated them.
There were rumors that the boy was some kind of child transformed into a witcher. Other rumors claimed the boy was a dragon due to witnesses seeing him spit fire from his mouth. There were also rumors that the boy was a superior vampire. Many things were said about Madara during this time, all affirming that he was not human.
However, Madara had gained great favor from Queen Calanthe, who appointed him as a sort of noble of the kingdom, an honorary title he earned despite not being linked to Cintra. He was given a property in the capital that belonged to the royal family in the north, along with a plot of land.
Madara was satisfied with having his own house, where he could train and not have to deal with a lot of guards and servants. The queen assigned some to maintain his house, which was quite large, but he refused to have them every day and allowed it only twice a week, as he wanted time to train.
Madara had not only gained rumors of not being human, but he also proved to be a swordsman who defeated the Lord Commander himself in a battle a few months later, as Madara had defeated a Royal Guard, traitor or not, he was still a Royal Guard.
It was at this moment that Madara was internally known by some as the best blade in the kingdom. Even Eist lost to him, and even Calanthe fought against Madara in a private fight, losing to him. Cirilla had trained more intensely after that day, adapting much faster than any boy her age could, after all, she had the Elder Blood and one of its properties was the ability to adapt to any environment. Cirilla had trained and undergone witcher training without the Trial of the Grasses, proving herself worthy. She might be far below Madara, but much better than any child her age.
It was dusk as Madara was hanging upside down with his eyes closed, concentrating. He looked like a ten-year-old boy while his hair was already long since he hadn't cut it since he was six, when he was in the orphanage.
He finally opened his eyes as he saw the sun begin to set on the horizon and sighed, before releasing his feet from the tree and calmly falling to the ground afterward, his long hair swaying.
His property was large enough for him to maintain his training all this time, it even had a lake for him to train chakra control and use fire jutsu. "Even so, I haven't grown at all except for improving my chakra control to spend less on jutsus..." Madara couldn't help but murmur as he looked around.
He hadn't gained any more power since his 7% in the system with the battle between him and the wizard over a year ago. Since then, he tried many things, but none worked. Gold no longer worked for him to gain power, no matter what he tried, and he hadn't unlocked any more power. The only thing he could do was grow up and start traveling the world, but he couldn't do that before the fall of Cintra, which seemed inevitable.
If he said he hadn't formed some bonds in this kingdom, he would be lying. Madara got used to the presence of Mousesack, Eist, and Cirilla, with whom he had more contact. Calanthe wasn't far from this either.
His routine over the past year had been to study not only the northern language but all he could with Mousesack. Madara could not say he didn't know the geography of the continent, the races with their characteristics, and much more. His shadow clones also greatly facilitated his speed.
He still performed some services for the kingdom when they required tasks that Cintra's soldiers couldn't handle, and he was called upon, hunting monsters, bandits, and solving some mysteries. Of course, due to his involvement a year ago on the night known as the fall of the nobles, he made many enemies among the kingdom's nobles.
Madara had been receiving assassins over the past year, but he easily dealt with everything thrown at him. He even killed a great noble, which calmed the others, fearing being killed by Madara, who seemed unafraid of anyone and was unbeatable as he exterminated all the assassins sent after him.
Some nobles tried to use their influence to banish or imprison him, but Calanthe supported Madara, which made it difficult for many of his new enemies to achieve anything against him. He particularly did not feel threatened dealing with a few ants.
He felt particularly at ease in this kingdom, having his own house, a favor from the queen, where he could study and train while spending his childhood until he was ready for the world.
"It's getting late, I should get ready..." he said in a neutral tone as he decided to go to his small mansion. He crossed his hands and a clone appeared.
"Organize all the kunai scattered around the place. I'm getting ready for tonight's banquet," Madara said, and the clone nodded.
He went to his house and put on dark clothes that he had in his own wardrobe, in a room full of scrolls with symbols different from anything in this world. Madara had been studying Fuuinjutsu since he received his last reward.
Despite his knowledge still being very shallow in this area, he was progressing as best as he could, even though he couldn't create storage scrolls yet, which he really wanted, to be able to carry his things in a simple piece of paper.
After dressing in dark clothes and tying his long hair back while leaving it loose in front, he was ready a moment later. As he left the house with his clone organizing the whole place, after all, the servant would come to clean, and Madara did not want his Fuuinjutsu or training to be seen by anyone.
He also placed his clones on guard on his property against any thieves, something that had happened before, but was easy to deal with as his clone surprised the thieves without them even realizing when they fell unconscious on the ground or even the bandits who fell dead without seeing their death as soon as they approached his house.
He continued running and jumping over the property wall before flexing his legs and making a great leap to jump even higher, leaping across the streets while people seemed to be preparing to return to their homes or even closing their businesses for the evening in the kingdom. He jumped onto another roof and jumped again, going from rooftop to rooftop towards the castle.
He quickly arrived at the location but did not land at the entrance, where numerous carriages were arriving, with richly dressed people. After all, today was a special banquet that gathered all the nobility of the region.
Madara ignored the nobles getting out of their carriages and continued towards the castle without being seen, running like a ninja until he jumped and entered through one of the open windows.
He landed softly in an empty room as he prepared to enter the castle from there, not wanting to draw attention and liking to be discreet.
"Were you waiting for me?" Madara asked suddenly in that room without any candles or lamps.
"You finally arrived! I've been waiting for you for half an hour!" a female voice came from a corner of the room, and Cirilla appeared in the light of the window behind Madara. She was wearing an entirely white dress, contrasting with his own clothes, while her hair was tied back. She was a slightly chubby child at that time.
"You know you don't have to wait for me," Madara said calmly, looking at the girl his age.
"And be with a bunch of boring kids? No," she said, crossing her arms and pouting, which she always seemed to do when she was dissatisfied with something.
"Does your Royal Guard know you're here?" Madara raised an eyebrow at the girl.
"No... He doesn't know you use your old room to enter the castle. You should thank me for asking them not to touch this room," she said and flashed a mischievous smile. "See how amazing I am? Thanks to me, you enter here into an empty room instead of running into a screaming servant, a thief, Madara the Thief!" She waved at the last part as she laughed as if it were very funny.
"Whatever. Let's go to the hall; your grandmother must be waiting for us," Madara shrugged and started walking.
"You're so boring..." she complained.
"Didn't you say you didn't want to be with boring kids?" he questioned her.
"That's not what I meant..." she muttered quietly and followed Madara as he opened the door.
"Let's go quickly before someone escorts us. I don't want to draw attention. My grandmother must be looking for me right now!" Cirilla exclaimed as Madara looked at her after closing the door to the empty corridor.
"You will draw your grandmother's attention with or without a guard, believe me. Let's just go," he commented.
"You could take us over the roof too!" She had an idea.
"You will mess up your entire dress and hairstyle, princess." Madara gave a small smile. Cirilla looked just like that painting Emhyr showed Geralt at the beginning of the game The Witcher 3.
"Whatever..." Cirilla saw that Madara was somehow laughing at her and puffed out her cheeks as she walked ahead of Madara.
After a while, as they continued crossing the castle corridors together, they began to pass through an area heading towards the kitchen since Cirilla wanted to use the staff passage, avoiding being noticed as she entered the hall.
Madara ended up following her, and as soon as the servants saw her, they began to greet her while she tried to maintain her haste. They even greeted Madara, who had gained a certain respect among the castle's people as he continued following the princess.
"Madara!" She was ready to cut across the corridor and enter through that entrance when she jumped back to Madara. "Lord Varys is at the entrance!" She exclaimed in despair.
"He's behind you, Ciri." Madara said as a shadow loomed behind the princess.
"Princess Cirilla... Your grandmother is very worried about your disappearance. It's great that you're safe!" he said with a small smile, already anticipating that Cirilla had been waiting for Madara to arrive.
"Hello-Hello, Lord Commander..." she said with some embarrassment, knowing her grandmother would be furious with her.
"Anyway, let's go through the main entrance." He spoke and looked at Madara. "It's good to see you here, boy. I hope you enjoy yourself with the other children." He said, opening another smile.
"Of course I will, Sir Varys." Madara said, raising his eyes. Enjoy with other children? Not him.
So they headed to the hall through the main door while Cirilla had a cautious expression, and Madara beside her had a calm expression while Lord Varys kept a small smile.